The franchise joined the Southern League in 1973 as the Orlando Twins, a minor-league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, which held spring training in Orlando, Florida at the time. The Orlando Twins played at Tinker Field in downtown Orlando, near the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. In 1990, the team was renamed the Orlando Sun Rays. In 1993, the Chicago Cubs became the team's new major-league affiliate, and the team was renamed the Orlando Cubs. While still a Chicago Cubs affiliate, the team renamed itself once again in 1997 and became the Orlando Rays. The following year, for one season only, the Seattle Mariners were the Rays' major-league affiliate. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, an American League expansion team in 1998, assumed the Orlando Rays' major-league affiliation the following year.

The Biscuits became Montgomery's first professional baseball team since 1980, when the Montgomery Rebels, Detroit Tigers affiliate, played their final season in the Southern League at Montomgery's Paterson Field. The Biscuits' owners, Sherrie Myers and Tom Dickson were selected from 6 different ownership groups during an extensive search for a public-private partner by the City of Montgomery. Myers and Dickson, selected the team's nickname from over 4,000 entries in a "name the team" contest, due in part to tying into indigenous affiliation and potential marketing and pun possibilities (ex. "Hey, Butter, Butter, Butter" or the team's souvenir store, the "Biscuit Basket"). Successful teams have campy, quirky names to relate to families and kids. During games, biscuits are shot from an air cannon, into the stands.

While in Orlando, the franchise won three Southern League championships: in 1981 (as the Twins), 1991 (as the Sun Rays), and 1999 (as the Rays).

On September 15, 2006, in just their third year of existence, the Biscuits defeated the Huntsville Stars to win the team's first Southern League championship in Montgomery. One year later, in 2007, the Biscuits again defeated the Huntsville Stars to win their second consecutive Southern League championship. They became the first team since the 1975–1977 Montgomery Rebels to win back-to-back championships.

Their mascots are "Big Mo," an orange beast that loves biscuits,[2] and "Monty", an anthropomorphizedbuttermilk biscuit. Monty appears in the logo and on the hat and is also the star of the documentary,"The Story of Monty the Biscuit".[3] The mascot for the Orlando Rays was "Spike", a bear.[4] The origin of Spike is unknown but presumed to predate the Devil Rays, as the club was previously controlled by the Cubs as well as the Twins (who have a bear mascot, T.C. Bear).

In 2014, a new live mascot was introduced and also named with a contest in which 4,800 entires submitted ideas for a micro-mini pot belly pig which became Miss Gravy, Duchess of Pork.